January 2, 2013

Planning Board Minutes (Mr. Eben and Mr. Gurland) DISCUSSION Chairman Bagoff announced that Mr. Eben and Mr. Gurland would each have seven minutes to discuss their research findings regarding the subject of Planning Board minutes. Mr. Eben advised the Board he had written a letter to Chairman Bagoff and had done extensive research including the review of Roberts Rules of Order, Land Use Law, and contacting local Boards including Bloomfield, Belleville and Maplewood. Mr. Eben said each Board he contacted said they listed the individual names of Board members. Mr. Gurland stated that his issue was that of transparency; since the Board and members of the Public had no access to transcripts, it was important that individual members be identified in the minutes. He opined that he did not understand what the objection was to having the names of individual members listed. Mr. Weston opined that minutes must reflect Board proceedings; transcripts were a separate issue; the minutes should be concise. Mr. Weston advised the Board that in years past, the issue of minutes had been reviewed. In matters of litigation, the Board minutes did not reflect the actual official written transcript. Subsequently, minutes were policed down. Additionally, Mr. Weston said that not listing the names was more consistent with the Resolutions. Mr. Gurland said Mr. Weston was right regarding the issue of litigation. Councilwoman McCartney said that so many of the Board’s votes were unanimous; the Board had healthy discussions; it indicated that Applications were vetted out. Mr. Ghebremicael said he agreed with Mr. Weston that the minutes must be concise. Mr. Klein said that if a Board member voted no, the minutes should reflect why the member voted no; the minutes should reflect the name of the member asking a question; but also the minutes must be concise. Chairman Bagoff said it was important to describe why a vote was no; however the role of the Board was not to legislate, but rather be visionaries. Mr. Dwyer advised the Board that the Rules of Procedures of the Planning Board of the Township of West Orange, included in the duties for the Secretary listed in sub-section “d”, was to arrange to make a tape recording of the of the proceedings of each hearing of the Board in accordance with the rules and keep minutes of the proceedings of each meeting. Mr. Dwyer said that only

as to arrange to make a tape recording of the of the proceedings of each hearing of the Board in accordance with the rules and keep minutes of the proceedings of each meeting. Mr. Dwyer said that only the verbatim transcript was the legal record; for the Secretary to record voluminous minutes, there could be discrepancy from the verbatim transcript, which could affect the public’s perception. ‘NAPLANNING. BRD\WP MINUTES 2013\1-2-2013 Draft Minutesdac >